Carter's Surgery

Our grandson, Carter, had his Cleft Palate surgery on March 3rd.  He is 9 months old. The anticipation of this surgery was difficult knowing the extensiveness and long recooperation time.  But . . . it has been a little over a week.  For me and Kent it has been extremely heart softening and humbling to watch our own precious daughter Tiffany and her husband press forward with faith, as they forsake all to heal their son.  Carter knows he is loved!

Dad, the RN,  helps prep Carter for surgery.  Carter has on the cutest little hospital gown, but as you can tell he is not at all excited about it. Maybe he senses what is coming.  This is about 7:30 a.m. in the morning.

Rob, Tiffany, Carter and Dr. Kjar just before going back to Dr. Bateman the anesthesiologist.  Dr. Kjar has been a wonderful doctor.  He has an amazing talent and we are blessed to have him share with Carter. Dr. Bateman is the son of Elder Bateman and was Carter's anesthesiologist for his first surgery.  Tiffany was soooo grateful to have him as the anesthesiologist again because of his great care for Carter the first time.

Carter and Mom after surgery.  Dr. Kjar said it went really well.  There was enough tissue to form the palate.  If there had not been enough tissue they would have used a tissue graft.  The black string coming from his mouth is attached to a stitch that is holding down his tongue.  He had that in for about 12 hours. It was to keep his tongue out of the way, if he started bleeding, and they had to quickly insert a tube.  Fortunately that didn't happen! 

 

Me, Kent and Landen arrived at the hospital around 1:00 p.m. (Landen slept way in!)  Landen got some quality play time in one of the waiting rooms while we took turns going back to visit Tiffany and Carter.  He had so much fun with this bowling game that Grandma bought him one of his own a couple days later.

Friday, the day Carter got home we had to go through the toys and temporatily remove the ones that could potentially be put in Carter's mouth and cause a problem.  Here are some of the toys that are now at Grandma and Grandpa's instead of their house.  Landen is upset about a couple of his favorite toys being gone. Mainly "Mator" from Cars. 


Carter is doing well.  His main struggle is once again having to learn how to swallow.  This includes food and his spit.  He just drools everywhere.  This will be the third time he has had to figure it out since each time the inside of his mouth has been just a little bit different.  Right now he is mostly on bottle feeding until he is comfortable with the food thing again ha ha.